


More Than Neighbors

by Sherale



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Developing Relationship, Explicit in later chapters, First Time, Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-18
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-08-31 19:12:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8590294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sherale/pseuds/Sherale
Summary: Lance and Shiro have been neighbors for as long as they could remember, and regardless of their differences, they’ve been the best of friends. They’ve grown up together along with the other kids in the neighborhood, developing strong friendships to many of them but no one was ever had as close a friendship as they did to each other. When they got older, Lance enrolled to a local college with several of those friends while Shiro went out of state to attend college for an exclusive degree. So, when Shiro returns home for winter break, old feelings are brought up and new ones begin to arise. The question is, what will he do with them when he’s faced with an immovable force?





	1. Welcome Home

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally supposed to be a one shot and somehow it became a story. Hopefully this comes out okay and you all like it. Tags might change with later chapters.
> 
> And thanks again to my friend Rie for reading over the work to help me out on some parts.

Shiro watched through his balcony doors into the ones opposite of his as his longtime friend about ripped open the parted curtains to look out of them. Lance was standing in his bedroom, face lighting up like he was told Christmas had come early. When their eyes met, Shiro smiled and gave a small wave.

~*~

He had returned home a few days ago from college. Soon after arriving home Shiro learned that Lance had gone off with Hunk and Pidge to a camping trip out of town and wouldn’t be back for a while. That was bound to have happened. Shiro had told him he didn’t think he’d be back until Friday anyways with all of his exams and packing up for the holiday break. So of course Lance would probably make plans with their longtime friends to pass the time until that day.

But with determination to see his home, his family, and his friends again, he got it all done ahead of schedule. It helped that he didn’t really have a lot of stuff to pack up since he was generally a very organized person.

So he arrived home on Wednesday afternoon instead of arriving mid-day on Friday like he had originally told everyone. When he had gone next door to inquire about Lance and greet him in surprise after the long time apart, the other’s parents told him of the trip. Hunk and Pidge were going up to the mountains to look at the stars and Lance tagged along for something to do until Shiro had come back. The others had finished their exams a few days before his own were completed, and because they commuted, they didn’t have to worry about cleaning up a dorm room. So with all their free time, Pidge and Hunk were bound to come up with a trip idea. Shiro himself had been so busy with his studying, exams, and packing these last few weeks that Lance must have wanted to save the trip details until he came back so he could tell him all about it in person.

He had a general idea of when Lance would be coming back too. He didn’t even text him to let him know he was home early, not wanting to ruin the surprise of his own. Lance was sure planning to be home before Shiro was designated to arrive, wash up, and do anything he needed to, then act like an aloof feline when approached if he had waited by the window for him. That was reason enough for Shiro to park his car in the garage while his parents were off at work, hiding it from sight and relaxing in his room until Lance did arrive back home.

Shiro sat in his desk chair, close to the glass doors of his balcony, looking out at times between reading his book. The curtains in front of the glass doors were normally pulled back and out of the way when he was home. He enjoyed having them open most of the time to let in light and have a view when he sat at his desk to work or read. From here he could see Lance’s home but also part of their front yards and back yards. He had a better view if he sat on the balcony though.

A mug of coffee sat on the table beside him within reach, filled with his favorite ground. Ambient music played in the background, tuned to a radio station he favored to listen to when he was in town. He was comfortable, happy, and at peace.

Fortunately, he didn’t have to wait for more than a few hours before he saw Lance arrive.

Lance was dropped off at his driveway by Hunk, Pidge in the front seat and both waving to the brunet as he grabbed his items from the trunk and went towards his front door. It was around ten in the morning, Lance’s father was long gone for work and his mother somewhere in the house, likely cleaning. Lance’s siblings were all off at school, their winter term not yet finished like the college ones.

After Lance entered the house, Shiro lost all sight of him and went back to his book in wait. He wasn’t really sure if Lance’s mother would tell him that Shiro had come home early or let him find out on his own. So when he heard the loud noise of a door banging open, he looked up from his book and towards Lance’s room.

Shrio couldn’t see him entirely due to the curtains in Lance’s room not being completely opened, but he could see Lance move further into his room, his bags from earlier nowhere in sight; most likely dropped once he had heard the news of Shiro being home. Lance went to the glass doors, jerking the parted curtains open more and looking through them to Shiro, his shocked and wondrous expression turning to one full of joy and excitement. He could imagine if Lance had a tail, it would be moving behind him like a dogs would. The thought had him chuckling, waving to his best friend, book closed on his lap.

The other pried open his doors and stepped out onto his balcony and into the winters chill, waving to him exaggeratedly with a bright smile. Shiro felt his heart jump at the sight. Lance had taken his coat off since he had gone into his home and was in a dark blue turtleneck, jeans, and his boots. The wind whipped at Lance’s hair, causing it to ruffle and Shiro saw his friend shiver, a hand going up to protect his face from the cold as his other hand wrapped around his waist. The sight had him smiling more. He couldn’t help but find the other so cute.

Shiro got up from his chair, set his book aside on the table, then unlatched his door and stepped out with a smile.

“Hey.” He said.

“You’re back early!” Lance was leaning on the railing of his balcony, looking at him with a smile and a laugh. Their balconies were six feet apart, similar in design in every way except for who stood on it.

“Yeah.” Shiro smiled to him and leaned on his own railing. He was happy he chose to wear a sweater instead of a shirt today. The weather was cold enough in December, but the wind didn’t help stave off the chill. “I got home Wednesday.”

“What!”

Shiro laughed, face lighting up. “Yeah.”

“You didn’t _tell_ me Wednesday! You said Friday!”

“I finished early.”

Lance threw his arms in the air in disbelief and frustration. The sight had Shiro laughing. His laugh was contagious, causing Lance to lower his arms and laugh with him until they both slowed to chuckles, faces rosy with laughter and the cold.

“How was your trip?” The raven asked, enjoying the sight of his best friend all upset for not telling him he was home sooner. But what would have been different? Lance would still be up in the mountains, curled up in his sweater as he and the others looked up at the stars. Shiro could just imagine how he’d complain of the cold, and then how Hunk would pass him a thermos of hot chocolate while Pidge was ignoring his complaints.

“It was great. We used Hunk’s family cabin to stay at while we went to the mountains for star gazing. Keith was _supposed_ to come along but mullet head got sick and called out.” Lance did a dramatic roll of his eyes, hands positioned on his hips.

Shiro could see the two still didn’t get along as great as say he and Hunk, but deep down he knew Lance liked him as a friend regardless. Even with all of their… bickering.

Smiling, Shiro stood up and motioned for Lance to return to his room. “Go get settled and put your stuff away, and when you want, come over and we can catch up over something warm.”

A look passed over Lance’s face that had him curious but he left it alone; there was no telling what kind of thoughts came to Lance’s mind. He was a flirt, a jokester, and a silly kid rolled into an adult body. He quite possibly had some silly idea of the warm thing being where he’d come into Shiro’s room, crawl under his covers, then hog the bed and blankets as he whined to get hot chocolate.

“Yeah. But hey.”

“Hmm?”

“Leave your balcony doors unlocked.”

Shiro was visibly confused upon the request, opening his mouth to ask why but Lance cut him off before he could. “Just trust me! Trust me!”

He actually didn’t always lock the balcony doors. Only when he knew he’d be gone for long periods of time; such as times like when he’d go on trips or when he went off to college, those were really the only times when he locked the doors. They lived in a nice and safe enough neighborhood and he knew during the cool months he liked to leave his doors open to enjoy the weather outside. But what made Lance want to be sure he didn’t lock them?

“Okay?”

Lance smiled. Even with Shiro’s puzzlement, he didn’t give anything away. “I’ll see you in like, an hour.” With a wave, he turned and went back into his own room, closed the doors, and hurried back out of his room. The last sight Shiro had of him was his long lean legs disappearing beyond the door. Shiro figured he’d probably be going to get his stuff and maybe take a shower to warm up or something, he didn’t really know. He just turned and went back into his room and took the spot he had previously, along with the place in his book.

An hour was a long enough time to read some more chapters.


	2. How are you?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Terribly sorry for the long delay. I actually had this chapter made awhile ago then stuff with work came up and I forgot all about it! But a new chapter for a new year. Enjoy.

It was almost an hour before he saw heads or tails out of Lance.

Shiro had gotten up to refill his coffee once, gone to the bathroom, padded around the house to stretch his legs, and even ate a small snack of grapes in that span of time. He soon settled back into his chair, book set aside and coffee mug in hand, and turned on the television to a news channel.

Somewhere between hearing the forecast of the week, out of the corner of his eye movement had caught his attention. He had brought the mug up to his lips for a drink when he did a quick, almost absent thought of a turn of his head to glance at whatever it was he saw.

He caught sight of Lance standing on the edge of his own balcony like a traipse artist, before he looked back to the television. When his brain registered what was happening, he jerked upright in shock in his seat, almost spilling the contents of his mug over his chest and lap.

“L-Lance!” He coughed, choking on the liquid from his shock.

His foolish God forsaken _friend_ was standing on the opposite balcony edge, walking along it like gravity from this height meant _nothing,_ like he was some _cat_ and he’d land on his feet just fine, no harm done. What hit him in the head to think to even _do_ this!?

Shiro almost tossed the mug down on his desk and he was bolting up to his feet to rush to the doors that led to his balcony. When he pried them open and started to hurry outside, Lance’s name on the tip of his tongue and ready to shout at him to get back down, the brunet jumped from his ledge and across the distance towards Shiro’s.

Shiro felt fear in his heart as he watched this, worrying that Lance was going to fall or miss. How would he explain this to any of their parents? _“Oh sorry ma’am, your son wanted to be a dare devil and he just didn’t make the cut.”_

But to Shiro’s peace of mind, Lance didn’t miss or fall short of the opposite ledge. He landed on the ledge railing with feline grace then leaned his weight forward to delicately drop down from it to the platform and into Shiro’s outstretched arms. Near the end of the whole ordeal Lance was laughing, face full of joy that had Shiro falling to his knees then his bottom, all energy drained from his legs.

“L-Lance… Jesus.” Shiro hugged his laughing form tightly to his body, a hand giving him a rough pat on the back. “Don’t _do_ that!”

Lance was still laughing. What Shiro didn’t notice was how he wiggled closer, burying is face in the sweater Shiro wore with a smile. Lance felt happy that even if he was caught in the act of coming over in an unconditional way, he at least got to get a big bear hug from his friend. Oh yes, being held by him was a _huge_ reason to be happy.

“I’ve done it before!” He said, words breaking up his laughter.

Shiro pushed Lance back from his body so they could look at each other, his eyes wide.

_“What!”_

The brunet was laughing again. “Yeah! I’ve practiced a lot since you went off to college!”

Shiro felt like his heart was going to bust. Lance was going to give him a heart attack, he just knew it.

“But before I explain everything, can we go insiiiiide?” Lance looked up at Shiro from between his legs, face full of mirth.

Yes. Lance was going to give him a heart attack.

When they got inside, Shiro closed the door firmly behind himself and watched as Lance went to his bed to crawl on top of the covers and sit with his legs crossed. He had switched out of his clothes earlier and Shiro could tell he had taken a shower too with how fresh and soft his hair looked. Lance was now wearing some kind of skin tight long sleeved shirt that the sleeves extended to become fingerless gloves as well. They could have also been arm warmers for all he knew; he wasn’t sure since Lance had on a slightly oversized knitted sweater on over it. The sweater sleeves reached to a little past his elbows and it was at least a size larger than Lance’s normal shirt sizes. He had also switched his boots out for a pair of sneakers.

“Lance, your shoes.”

The other looked down at his feet and made a small ‘oh’ with his mouth before he pulled them off and set them on the side of the bed before resuming his spot. Shiro noticed his blue socks with white paw prints over them.

“Okay… So explain _why_ you did what you just did, and what you meant by you’ve done it before.”

“Well…” Lance looked away, tilting his head to the side as he grinned. Shiro’s eyes narrowed; he knew that look meant Lance had been up to no good. “I started practicing outside, trying to see how far I could jump. I’m really good at jumping you know.” When he looked back to Shiro, the raven’s arms were crossed and he had a stern look on his face that clearly said he didn’t find his jumping skills a good enough reason to pull off that kind of stunt. “And I kept thinking on if I could jump to your balcony.”

“Un hunh. Why?”

“To surprise you of course!”

Shiro released a heavy sigh when that familiar grin curled Lance’s lips.

“You could have been _hurt_.”

“I wasn’t.”

“Lance!”

The male laughed. He rocked side to side on the bed, hands holding his ankles, legs still crossed. “I’ve done it before!”

“ _LANCE!”_

Lance was laughing even more now. Shiro looked absolutely exasperated with him.

“It’s okay!” He tried to reason as his rocks and laughter settled to sitting still and soft chuckles. “I made sure I could make the distance from the ground before I tried our balconies. And I’m great with my balance. Waaaaay better than Hunk is.”

“Just… Just don’t do it again.”

Shiro didn’t hear any form of agreement or acknowledgement from Lance upon his request but he knew he could scold him and reprimand him until he was worn and tired from it all and Lance would still pull some stunt to seem worse than the last.

So instead, he moved to the bed, taking a seat by Lance. The other looked at him, smile still in place, and happiness radiating off of him.

“Your mother said you were on a trip.” Shiro started. When he sat on the bed, he sat more towards to headboard and turned to face Lance. Lance had even turned himself partially to face him.

He nodded, grinning. “Yeah. Four days, three nights. It was fun.”

“What all did you do?”

“Well, it was supposed to be all _four_ of us, since you couldn’t join because you were away at _college_.” Lance rolled his eyes. “Or at least we thought you’d be but seems you decided to come home early!”

Shiro laughed.

“I didn’t plan on it, honest. I really thought I’d be back on Friday.”

“Yeah, yeah. Excuses. _Any_ ways, Keith canceled on us because he got the flu or something. I don’t know, he called Pidge and talked to them. It was cool without his too-cool-for-you attitude and mullet being there.”

“You know he’s only like that with you.”

“He’s a mullet brained crazy!”

“Come on Lance…” Shiro actually liked Keith. He was nice and a great person to do outdoor physical activities with such as camping or rock climbing. Lance tended to like more artistic outings or social activities like put-put and bowling.

Lance huffed. “Well… Then Hunk drove us three up to his family’s lodge and we got our own rooms. _That_ was cool. Mine looked out to the woods and I could watch snow fall.”

“Any snowball fights?”

“Oh yeah!”

Both of them were laughing now. Shiro was laughing because he could just imagine Hunk trying to make some snow person and Lance would ruin it by hitting him with a snow ball and thus began some war between them, and of course, Pidge would show up with some mechanical device to throw snow balls for them. Lance was laughing because the truth of it was, he was the main instigator for the snowball fights except for one time.

“Okay, okay, what else?”

“Well, Hunk cooked mostly. He was a real mother hen up there at times. Pidge and Hunk star gazed from the attic, there’s a real nice window up there. And I would listen to music or watch television while they talked about term papers and test. I swear, we _just_ finished and they’re still going at it.”

Shiro smiled. The three always had good fun together. And if Lance didn’t try getting Hunk in trouble, the fun was usually good natured.

Lance scooted himself closer to Shiro, smiling at him. He was sitting by his legs now, a hand going to Shiro’s knee. “How was your semester?”

“Nothing much outside of what I texted you.” Shiro didn’t mind the touch. Lance’s hand felt a bit cold but then, it was cold outside. “Grades should be posted by Monday and I’ll see how I did.”

“Great like always.”

“What about yours?”

“Ugh.” Lance looked upward, displeased over something. “I think I got a B in my math class. But I swear, I think teachers have it rigged because those book questions are _never_ like the tests.”

Shiro just smiled.

“But everything else should be good. Mom will be proud.”

“That’s good.”

Lance looked at him with such a charming smile that Shiro returned it, feeling his body warm with having his friend so close. What he didn’t know was why suddenly Lance’s cheeks turned pink and what caused Lance’s hand to squeeze on his knee.

Lance felt his heart skip a beat at Shiro’s smile that it felt like suddenly something was fluttering in his stomach. He looked away, making a short laugh. “Oh man… You should have been there with us. It would have been great.” He did wish Shiro could have made the trip so he could spend time cuddled up before a fire with him in the guise of a group cuddle to get warm.

“I wish I could have made it.”

 _Me too_. Lance thought.

Shiro sat up, crossing his legs and sitting close to Lance. The other looked to him when he moved, almost nervously if he caught the emotion on his face right. But Shiro just smiled at him, hoping that wasn’t what he saw. “You know, I bet I can still kick your butt in Mario Kart.”

Lance’s features turned playful, eyes challenging him. “Oh yeah? I’ve gotten _good_. I can go toe to toe with Pidge now.”

“Pidge is a tough contestant.”

“Oh yeah.”

Both smirked at each other.

 

~*~

 

They had played the game for an hour or more, Shiro winning almost every match before they put the game on pause. The brunet about collapsed over his lap, dramatic as always, and put his hands to his stomach as Shiro looked down to him.

“I’m hungry~.” Lance whined.

Shiro just laughed. “What do you want?”

Dazzling blue eyes peered up at him, the male wiggling to get comfortable where he laid on his lap. “What do you have?”

“Well…” Shiro looked off in thought. “My dad made a lasagna last night and there’s still some left.”

Lance’s eyes lit up, rolling off of Shiro’s lap and springing to his feet quickly. “Oh yeah! Your dad’s lasagna is the best!”

Shiro laughed more. “Oh yeah? He’d be happy you said so.” He stood up, looking at Lance with a smile.

“Hey, if he made me one personally for saying that, I’d say it every week. Hell, I’d _marry_ you just to ask him to make it for a wedding gift.” Lance said. Too late had he realized how fucking _weird_ that last comment was. He tried to play it off as a joke while inside he berated himself for saying that. He couldn’t believe he admitted to marrying him for lasagna. Hell, he’d marry him regardless of that noodle and cheesy confection.

“Marry me, hunh?” Shiro smirked at him.

“Oh yeah.” Lance had to keep with the joke now even when he felt like he’d melt under that smirk. How could Shiro be so damned hot when he got cocky? Lance did a twirl then posed dramatically. “I’d make a _great_ husband too. You’d be lucky to have me.”

Shiro was still smirking. He extended one hand out to push on Lance’s shoulder, laughing. “That’s a big leap for some food.”

Lance tried to laugh it all off as Shiro passed by him to walk out of the room first. When his eyes were off of him, Lance put a hand to his face, feeling absolutely foolish. God he couldn’t believe how stupid he was being. His hand flew down to his side when he noticed Shiro turning to look at him.

“So, lasagna?”

Lance nodded, trying to shake off any feeling of foolishness. “Yeah!”

They both went downstairs and to the kitchen. Lance watched Shiro pull a glass dish covered with tinfoil out of the kitchen and set it on the counter. Next he pulled out two plates and a knife along with two forks. He cut the cooled meal into portions for them both, set it on the plates, then placed the tinfoil onto the dish again before putting it away.

He decided to not be too much of a bad guest and went to where he remembered the family kept their glasses and opened the cabinet door, looking at all of the options. “I’m going to make hot chocolate, what do you want?” He asked as he reached up and grabbed a mug for himself.

“Oh.” Shiro looked upwards in the direction of where his room would be, remembering something. “I forgot my coffee upstairs.” When he looked back to Lance, the male was holding a mug that he tended to always grab when he came over. Shiro had deemed it Lance’s favorite long ago. “I’ll go get it.” He placed one plate in the microwave then covered it with a microwave cover, set the timer, then walked back upstairs to get what he wanted.

While he waited, Lance poured himself some milk into the mug, waiting for the food to finish cooking to heat up his milk. Already he could smell the cheese and meat sauce from the lasagna, making his stomach growl. Shiro had returned downstairs a bit before the microwave alarm went off, and when it did, Lance carefully took the plate out with the cover then put his mug inside and set it to heat it up.

“How does it look?”

“ _Delicious.”_ Lance felt like purring at the beautiful sight of it. He looked to Shiro, grinning. “If I burn my tongue, will you kiss it better?”

Shiro rolled his eyes with a smile. “Okay, we’re not five anymore and if you burn your tongue then you are too eager to be eating hot food right now.” He went to the sink to pour out his cold coffee and rinse it out

“Hey, I’d kiss your hurt tongue.” Lance haughtily stuck his chin up. In thought, he imagined just kissing Shiro, hurt tongue or not.

“A true hero.”

“Definitely!”

The microwave beeped.

Lance turned and went to it, popping the door open, grabbed a small cloth to protect his hand, then pulled the mug out of the microwave, steam emitting from the hot milk inside. “Mmmm… It smells so good.” He took a deep whiff and set it aside on the counter to go and fetch the dry cocoa mix Shiro’s mother always made for the holiday season.

Shiro had moved closer by then to put in the second plate in the microwave with the cover over it and set it to the same time he had the other set to. When he finished, Lance was pouring in teaspoons of the powder then stirring it with a cinnamon stick he had found by the powder container.

Shiro smiled to Lance who held the mug under his nose, takin a deep inhale of the scents all mixed together now. “Looks good.”

“Mmm… Going to taste good once I can drink it.” He kept the cloth as protection around the mug for now but he was sure to remove it soon to get skin to mug contact for the heat it provided.

“Too hot?”

“Oh not as hot as you, Shiro.” Lance looked at him from over the mug as he had it close to his lips, blowing on it. _‘Damnit, damnit, shut_ UP _, self!’_ he berated himself mentally. “I bet you have people clamoring all over you on campus.”

Shiro was a bit surprised with the change of conversation but figured he was just trying to pry into his dating life again. Lance tended to ask if he was dating anyone at the end of every semester as if he was expecting Shiro to show up with some girlfriend out of the blue. He suspected his own parents were secretly waiting on the same results too.

“Some, but I’m more focused on my studies right now.”

“Any confessions?” Lance’s eyes held some kind of emotion he just couldn’t put his finger on. Was something secretly bothering him and he just didn’t know?

“Yeah, some.” Shiro looked to him. “What about you? Any confessions from anyone?”

Lance had come out to Shiro about two years ago about being bisexual. When he had told Shiro, he felt a bit of fear that maybe Shiro wouldn’t want to be his friend or want to continue to do things with him that brought them close together. But Shiro had dismissed all fears by holding him tight and thanking him for trusting him with who he was. After that day, Lance knew he was lost to the love he felt over his friend.

“Oh yeah. Tons.” Lance joked. “I have to about beat them all away because I’m so good looking!”

Shiro chuckled, smiling at Lance. “Oh? And dating any of those prospects?”

Lance shook his head. “Nah. I’m holding out for someone.”

Shiro’s interest was piqued. Who could Lance have been holding out for? He hadn’t mentioned anyone from campus and none of their other friends mentioned Lance having _met_ anyone like that. Hunk probably knew, being so close to him, but he wasn’t likely to tell the secret either.

Seeing his look, Lance waved his hand dismissively. “I just have to work my magic is all.”

“Well, knowing you, they’ll be falling for you in no time.”

“Hm.” Yeah, he _wished_. Lance took a sip of the warm drink, but only a small one before he pulled the mug from his lips. It was still too warm for him.

He had been secretly pinning for Shiro for two years now, and if he was honest with himself, it was much longer than that after he really sat down one day and _really_ thought about his feelings for Shiro. But he just never felt brave enough to confess that part of himself like he had with his sexuality. And what was worse, how could he ever achieve making Shiro fall in love for him when he was the love struck kitten?

“I see you’re still keeping in shape.” Lance grinned to him, trying to change the subject to something off of him and his hidden feelings. Though, picking the topic of Shiro’s looks wasn’t a good distraction either, as Lance should have picked something he himself wouldn’t oogle over in private. “How much you pounding?”

“ _Lance_.”

The brunet laughed. “What? You’re not pounding that punching bag anymore?” He grinned, a light pink on his cheeks as he brought the mug up to hide behind it partially. “What did you _think_ I was talking about?”

Shiro sighed, a smile tugging at his lips. Lance never changed.

When the microwave beeped for the last time, Shiro extracted the plate, set aside the cover, and placed the plate down in front of a chair for Lance to sit at. Lance had moved to where Shiro put his food, set the mug down, and grabbed his own fork off the table. “It looks really good.” He confessed, mixing some of the ingredients up to watch how the cheese just stretched and how gooey it was. A growl from his stomach had Shiro laughing.

“Come on, let’s eat before it gets cold.”

Lance didn’t have to be told twice.

 

~*~

 

During their lunch break they had talked of their classes and the activities they had joined during the semester, even if they had talked previously of them through texts and phone calls. Lance never got tired of hearing Shiro’s story of how a classmate of his had poured a five-hour energy drink into his coffee during a 7 a.m. class and the following worry Shiro had of watching the said classmate in class. Shiro even said by one of the last few classes of the year he caught him doing it again, the said classmate looking Shiro dead in the eyes while saying “Morning classes are a mistake.”

Lance had funny stories of his own. He told Shiro how on one of the last few weeks of the semester, Pidge had a line of people begging for last minute tutoring help and how Pidge single handily charged them through the teeth and was able to buy themselves a brand new computer. And then there was Hunk who had made snacks for all those poor students who were paying Pidge’s fee for some of the best study tips and tricks they could ever get.

There was another time Keith had brought a hammock to the campus in the middle of the semester to take a nap. And while he slept, Lance had loaded his hammock up with freshly fallen autumn leaves, successfully covering him up until all that was visible was Keith’s face in the sea of colorful leaves. Shiro was almost in tears over the story because he recalled Keith texting him several messages, angrily he might add, about how Lance was a complete and total asshole and how he would be stringing him up by his toes like a piñata. At the time he didn’t fully understand the heat behind his words but now it made total sense. He could imagine Keith waking up to such a prank and chasing Lance around on campus while pelting him with the same leaves he was buried in. Lance of course had taken a picture for proof and promised to show Shiro later.

When they had finished they took the dishes to the sink and washed them as clean as they could then put them in the dishwasher. Afterwards, Lance had made himself another cup of hot chocolate, Shiro deciding to join him in the merriment of the season and have a mug of hot chocolate as well.

They moved back upstairs when they had their drinks and Lance opted to watched television instead of playing more Mario Kart less they knock their mugs over. Shiro had agreed because he knew his mother would be upset over the dark stains on the carpet.

So there they sat, on Shiro’s bed, a shared blanket over their laps as they sat close, mugs in hands, and watching a show they both enjoyed on the television.

Lance glanced over to Shiro, thumb rubbing his mug in thought. He had wanted to be this close to him for a long while; and, by Shiro’s comments he wasn’t _dating_ anyone which meant he could try and push more subjects. He could try to get… closer to him. So Lance thought _“Why not.”_ and wiggled close enough to Shiro where their arms were brushing together. He laid his head on Shiro’s shoulder, watching the T.V. and trying to act like what he was doing was a normal thing.

So far he didn’t feel Shiro jerk or flinch away, and he didn’t try to nudge him off either. Carefully, Lance glanced up to see if Shiro was looking at him. When he saw the male’s attention still locked on the show, he smiled.

The moment gave Lance hope that maybe Shiro could like him too, that maybe, just maybe, if he confessed, Shiro wouldn’t be bothered knowing his best friend liked him.

When he left that night, Shiro telling him he would go home through their house doors like a normal person and _not_ by jumping balconies again, he felt warmer inside than he had for a while. Shiro didn’t seem bothered by him laying on him or against him for most of the way. He never got bothered when Lance fell asleep while resting his head on his shoulder, just only moving them so Lance could lay down while he took a nap and Shiro laid by him to read a book.

And that moment, when Lance woke up as he was curled into Shiro’s side, he just knew that that feeling was too good to lose. He wanted to be able to nap by Shiro any time, to wake up in his arms or in his bed and just look up and see the guy he liked and his best friend smiling down at him.


End file.
